The mottley Last of the Summer Wine Fox crew (Bob, Paul, Roy, Ken & new boy Roy) hid themselves at the Salhouse Lodge on Wednesday night and in a rare event all 7 teams found them by direction finding by the 9.30 pm deadline. Shortest possible distance was around 6 miles so James, Lyn, James, Kevin and Sonny did very well to get there in 6.4 miles with Colin and Tammy coming close behind at 7.0 miles and next Nev and Ben coming in at 8.1 miles, with just a little bit further than them newcomers Mark and Mui (who are newly licensed and only bought their DF kit at RadioActive!) took 8.2 miles (or 13.2 km as their amazing vehicle displayed).

All of the teams did very well and it served as an excellent rehearsal for the Trophy Foxhunt on 18th July!

One unexpected event was that by unfortunate coincidence 6th June was the date which most Freeview TV channels changed frequency and strangers walking about pointing antenna all over a field brought understandable concern and intrigue to some people! I had to passify one local resident who came out to see us with his small dog as he was absolutely convinced that we must have something to do with the fact his TV no longer worked and that his wife was giving him grief about! I reassured him that all he had to do was retune all his channels....

Thanks to the Wily Foxes and all 7 teams for taking part from the new start place of Thorpe recreation ground which proved to be a good high place with few obstructions of buildings or people around so we will probably use that again. Some photos below.

But why no club meeting at CNS?

I have been asked indirectly why we do not have an informal meeting at the school when the foxhunt is on, and that is a completely reasonable question. Before we had the cost of room hire on a Foxhunt night we used to still have an informal, but there were usually only 5 or 6 people, maximum 10, and they used to disband after an hour or so - I know because I used to come back into the school after seeing off the foxhunters. Now we have to pay significant room hire to the school it would not seem a good use of club funds to pay for the large room hire and an urn for so few people. However we would be more than happy to hire the school if there is a reasonable number of people, say 20+, who would like to attend and do construction, morse practice or just socialise. We are only trying to make best use of the clubs funds.

On suggestion I was given is that the foxes and foxhunters usually retire to a pub after the hunt, so non foxhunters could come to the start and get the details of where they will meet from me after the foxhunters have left.....?

The Trophy foxhunt is on 18th July, so if you would like to attend a social informal that evening please drop me an email or talk to me at the club and if we get a viable number we will book the room and an urn.

73, David G7URP

PS, Another suggestion is that its great fun, so why not give it a go?!

Thanks to everyone who supported, helped with and attended Radio Active and National Field Day last weekend. Despite an incredible downpour on Saturday tea time I think everyone seemed to enjoy the event.

Some highlights:

Radio Active Super Raffle!

Thanks to generous prize givers and raffle ticket buyers we managed to raise £440 which has now been sent to Cancer Research and Big C!

Special thanks again to our principle supporters:

• BHI Speakers

• Gaugemaster Models

• Icom UK

• JPR Electronics

• Martin Lynch & Sons

• Train-Tech

• NARC members who added raffle prizes to the table over the weekend - thank you!

Workshops

There were workshops for PCB etching, power supply building, Smart homes, Antenna analysis and Digital Radio and all were well attended and popular.

Its always dangerous to mention names in case people are left out but I must thank Nick M0HGU, James G7PQF, Kevin M0UJD, Steve G4GHO and Mark G0LGJ for their huge commitment and work for these workshops.

If you bought a Power supply kit but were not able to attend an etching session we did etch some extra boards for these kits so please ask me for one of these when you next see me at the club.

Kits and bits - Last orders!

Everything people ordered for the event arrived in time to give out and I have also had a couple of orders given to me at the event, so this is last orders for anyone who didnt get around to ordering before the event, I can still supply many of the items if ordered by Wednesday 13th June, including several £2 metal detector kits, £5 AM/FM radio kits and a couple of £4 weather stations I have left over. If you want something just ask and I will try and supply otherwise I will keep them for next year.

Radio Active next year?

Should we do another Radio Active next year? Currently I have an open mind as there were not many new fresh ideas which came forward for this years event, with the exception of Nicks offer to show PCB making. So if you would like this event to run next year, please start thinking of things you would like to see in it or even better do as Nick did and offer to share a skill or idea.

Thanks

I close by thanking my XYL Tammy M3PLU, a wonderful lady who supports me in everything I do and not least Radio Active.

This is the main club fund raising event of the year and although Mark G0LGJ and I organise it, we need lots of help from club members on the day, so if you are able to help in any way please drop me an email to radio@dcpmicro.com.

If we get plenty of help it means everyone gets a break to enjoy the event too - and all profit helps the club fund projects and subsdise the room hire.

Despite poor geomagnetic conditions, HF propagation for last weekend’s National Field Day was actually better than we forecast. Norfolk Amateur Radio Club even managed to contact New Zealand via the F layer on 40 metres. NFD was no doubt helped by Sporadic E, which gave good propagation to Europe on most bands.

Speaking of Sporadic E, there were some excellent openings on 10 metres earlier last week. Some of them were very short skip indeed, with reports of UK stations working the Netherlands and even the Orkney Islands.

If you haven’t been on 10 metres this season please do. In one morning a whole host of low power 5 Watt beacons were audible from Austria, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Poland, along with FM repeaters from Switzerland, Poland and Germany. The rest of the band was full of CW, SSB and FT8 signals.

This rather showed that you can have Sporadic E openings despite a high-speed solar wind.

Next week, NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain around 70 again, but geomagnetic conditions will likely be more more settled than last week due to a lack of substantial Earth-facing coronal holes.

The most reliable HF band for F-layer propagation remains 20 metres, with occasional 17 metre openings. But all the bands from 40 metres to 10 metres are benefiting from Sporadic E and short skip this month so don’t miss out.

There have also been some reports of multi-hop Es, which can take your signal even further afield, but more of that in the VHF section.

VHF and up

It has been a classic first week of June for Es, with CW, SSB and digital VHF QSOs to the Americas, although it has tailed off a bit now. Sporadic E has been good so far this month so continue checking every day, mid morning and late afternoon, or early evening if your time is limited.

The weather patterns remain much the same into the first part of next week, but with the addition of a few showers, possibly thundery in the south particularly. This could be good for rain scatter on the Gigahertz bands.

There will be a change from the more settled high-pressure weather after midweek with Atlantic lows starting to roll in once again. These should bring some stronger jet streams into western Europe, especially towards the Pyrenees, perhaps boosting Sporadic E into Spain and the central Mediterranean.

Tropo has also been a feature recently and will continue to provide for a while as high pressure remains close by over northern Britain. Sea paths have performed well and this will remain the case with paths across the North Sea once again proving a good route into Europe.

The first half of June is also one of the best periods of the year for meteor scatter. Last week, two broad-peak showers coincided, so look for meteor scatter in between the Es openings.

The moon’s declination is positive and rising to a maximum and with perigee on Thursday, a good week for EME. Only on Wednesday, when the Moon and the sun are very close will Sun noise be a problem.

.The schedule for Morse tuition locally for the summer will be a continuance of the daily classes which Chris G4CCX runs on two metres. They will be as follows:.Tuesdays:1000 - 1100 Coffee Break Morse with Chris G4CCX on 145.250MHz.Thursdays:1000 - 1100 Coffee Break Morse with Chris G4CCX on GB3NB.The Tuesday class is well attended, as is the Thursday class on GB3NB..EVENING CLASSES WILL RESUME ONCE AGAIN IN LATE SEPTEMBER SO WATCH THIS SPACE.............................................................HOMEWORK for the summer before the resumption of classes in the autumn..1 Learn as many abbreviations as possible. You can find your study course here:.http://www.hamuniverse.com/qsignals.htmlor here:https://www.wattpad.com/478101276-codes-ciphers-morse-code-abbreviations.This site has just about all you will need, BUT you WILL need to learn these. DO NOT ignore them. Part of being able to hold a great conversation in Morse is this knowledge. Relying on code reader programs is NOT the way to go. It's the lazy man's approach to using Morse and it can get you into a lot of awkward situations. You have nearly four months to learn these, easy-peasy, IF you devote some time to it.Then have a look at this video on how to construct a CW QSO. As you will see it assumes you have done the homework above! However, that is par for the course..https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=ZqPQE1D8gfw.....................................................................Following the Forum at NARC there will be Morse on Informal evenings at the Club. On contest evenings, Paul M1AFQ will be running a class in the computer room and will be teaching from scratch.Paul M1AFQ also has a social mini-bootcamp at his QTH on Thursday afternoons. Everyone is welcome ( not sure how large his place is!!! ) and any time after 12.30. QTHRJim G3YLA has organised a class of those who have done CW in the past but wish to resume once again. Jim will not be available on contest Informals, but will be available after July when the CC contests finish..Besides these schedules, it will also be possible to learn on line using Skype. Classes will be held using that medium in the near future. Let me know if you are interested. Les G0DFC is interested in this so keep an eye on this space and I will let you know when it has been set up..

NFD was a challenging event at the Ellingham ranch. The weather was horrendous on Saturday morning with torrential downpours and we all got quite wet setting up the tent, poles and antennas. Roger G3LDI started the operating and the rain fell in sheets. The tent leaked and storms were all around us. The main one hit us and monsoon rain came with it, such that the tent leaked badly. Pul G3SEM and Kim G4WUG both held up a coat above me and the gear to keep the rain off! The anglepoise lamp had water dripping off the shade. DCP suffered a strike, our power supply and hence the transceiver tripped about four times and a car alarm was set off. Then one enormous thunderclap directly above us shook the ground and Jim G3YLA made the sensible decision of a weatherman and closed us down for 40 minutes.It really was too dangerous to carry on under those conditions. G4ARN/P ended with 1028 Qs and G8QR/P ended with around 165. They also closed down and didn't open again until Sunday morning!Peter M0RYB and Chris G0TZZ however, operating M0P/P looks like they may have won the QRP section this year, so well done to them. They ended with 741 Qs a very commendable total.The social side was a great success as usual with David and Tammy as hosts provided us with their superb facilities and we had the usual obligatory fish and chip supper on Saturday eveng and Bacon butties for Sunday lunch. The raffle was very well supported and Sunday roast roll was very nice too. Many thanks to David and Tammy for that..One small test for you: Whose legs are these?.

.Pictures are on the NARC website so go take a look and see what you missed if you were not there. Hopefully more will attend in 2019 because it is a very good weekend all round..The RSGB CC CW event is next week Wednesday 13th June so we hope to see as many of you on there as possible..NOTICE: The WA7BNM Contest Calendar has permanently moved to: http://www.contestcalendar.com/ Please update any links to the calendar..The web versions of this contest calendar can be found at: http://www.contestcalendar.com/ You can also access a text version of the weekly calendar at: http://www.contestcalendar.com/weeklycal.txt.See the list on WA7BNM, something for everybody!.Other Contests:https://tinyurl.com/4mdvb.VHF/UHF from the East. Comments from our number-cruncher!Nothing this week..That's it for this time. 73 de Roger, G3LDI